Silence Aloud

There are many things that you can troubleshoot at home when it comes to diagnosing car problems.  When my car was leaking fluids, I had no idea from which part of the engine they were coming from so I looked in my Ford Expedition repair manual.  I not only figured out what was wrong at that time, but I learned much more than I was expecting.  Now, should a leak arise I will have more to consider, and more to work with as well.  I knew what an oil leak looked like as I had spent years driving an older Volkswagen bus, known to leak oil almost on a constant basis.  This time I could not even figure out the color of the fluid so I followed the advice of an old friend.  I drove my car for a bit, came home parked it in the driveway, and put a large piece of white cardboard under my car and waited.  The white cardboard is important as it allows the color of the liquid that is leaking to be determined.

This will give you a good idea where the leak is originating from.  Your radiator is most likely leaking if the color is a vibrant green.  Vibrant blue is an indication that your fluid from your windshield wipers are leaking, which in colder temperatures can cause quite a problem.  The wiper fluid is very helpful when cleaning snow and ice from the windshield.  Sometimes in the winter, the wiper fluid will be either yellow, pink or orange.  The troublesome leaks will involve oil, the transmission fluid or the brake fluid, for when your engine runs out of these fluids the damage can be quite extensive, and in the case of the brake fluid, could be quite dangerous as well.  The brake fluid as well, should be changed every two years, as through time it absorbs water.  When I bought my new car, I made sure that the manufacturer’s Ford Ranger repair manual was in the glove compartment, for not only was it great to have diagnosed the previous problems, I had a sense of well being knowing that I could refer back to the manual, and gaining the knowledge to begin to do at least the small fixes on my new SUV.

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